Tension gripped Rajasthan’s Churu town on Friday after carcasses of a cow and a calf were allegedly recovered from a house in a neighbourhood of the town late on Thursday, police said.

Tension gripped Rajasthan’s Churu town on Friday after carcasses of a cow and a calf were allegedly recovered from a house in a neighbourhood of the town late on Thursday, police said.

Agitated residents set ablaze a private bus and a truck after information about the alleged recovery was circulated on social networking media platform WhatsApp.

According to the police, residents smelled something stinking from a jute bag which a woman was carrying through the market. On opening the bag they found a severed head of a cow.

The woman was taken to her house from where carcasses of the cow and a calf were also recovered. The information spread on social networking platform WhatsApp and a mob started gathering outside the house, said inspector general of police (Bikaner range) Girraj Lal Meena.

Demanding the arrest of the accused, the mob pelted stones, prompting police to use mild force to control the situation, he said. “The accused woman and her son have been arrested and additional police force from the neighbouring districts of Sikar and Bikaner has been deployed in the area to control the situation.”

Fearing a communal flare up-- the accused are Muslim and run a butcher's shop in the town--the district administration clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144-- that prohibits gathering of more than four people at a place.

The prohibitory orders were, however, relaxed from 130PM to 7PM, he said. Educational institutions, markets in Churu, Sadulpur and Sardarshahar remained closed on Friday.

State health minister Rajendra Singh Rathore, who visited the spot along with police and district administration officials, appealed to the people not to close down markets and inconvenience residents.

Appealing for people to maintain peace before the Raksha bandhan festival, state Congress president Sachin Pilot said the incident was unfortunate as criminals tried to take advantage of the poor maintenance of law and order in the town.

Crime was increasing across the state with criminals having a free hand as people suffered, he said.